Bolarinwa v. Williams

• Decision Date: 28 January 2010
• Docket Number: Docket No. 08-0832-pr.
• Citation: 593 F.3d 226
• Parties: Senora L. BOLARINWA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Elizabeth WILLIAMS, Superintendent, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Respondent-Appellee.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

593 F.3d 226

Senora L. BOLARINWA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Elizabeth WILLIAMS, Superintendent, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Respondent-Appellee.^*

Docket No. 08-0832-pr.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: December 7, 2009.

Decided: January 28, 2010.

Theodore S. Green, Green & Willstatter, White Plains, NY, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Ashlyn Dannelly, Assistant Attorney General (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Roseann B. MacKechnie, Deputy Solicitor General for Criminal Matters, of counsel), for Andrew M. Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, New York, NY, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before: KATZMANN and LIVINGSTON, Circuit Judges, STANTON, District Judge.^**

KATZMANN, Circuit Judge:

This case calls upon us to determine whether mental illness can serve as a ground for equitable tolling of the one-year statute of limitations for filing habeas petitions prescribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"). See 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). We hold that it can. In addition, we find that the district court properly granted Petitioner-Appellant's motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal to this Court. We vacate the judgment of the district court and remand to allow Petitioner-Appellant to present that court with evidence in support of her claim for equitable tolling.

I

On July 16, 1995, Petitioner-Appellant Senora Bolarinwa and her father entered a police station in Albany, New York, claiming that they could not locate her three-year-old son; at that time, Bolarinwa made several statements indicating that she had harmed her son. Bolarinwa directed officers to a location on the Hudson River where her son's body was found, and she agreed to accompany the officers back to the police station. After being provided a Miranda warning and agreeing to speak with officers, Bolarinwa began to act peculiarly and made statements suggesting that she was responsible for her child's death. People v. Bolarinwa, 258 A.D.2d 827, 827-28, 687 N.Y.S.2d 442 (3d Dep't 1999).

Bolarinwa was tried in Albany County Court for murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the first degree for the killing of her son. Id. at 827, 687 N.Y.S.2d 442; see also N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(4); id. § 125.20(4). Prior to trial the state court determined that Bolarinwa was an incapacitated person and ordered her committed to an institution for care and treatment. In March 1996, after six months of institutionalization, Bolarinwa was certified as fit to proceed to trial by a psychiatrist, who found her depression and suicidal tendencies sufficiently improved to return her to a correctional facility. Bolarinwa, 258 A.D.2d at 831-32, 687 N.Y.S.2d 442. At trial Bolarinwa presented seven experts to testify in support of her affirmative defense that she was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. In opposition, the state's expert testified that Bolarinwa did not suffer from a mental disease or defect and did not lack the capacity to appreciate the nature and consequences of her conduct. Id. at 831-32, 687 N.Y.S.2d 442.

Bolarinwa was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree, and judgment was entered on April 4, 1997. She appealed her conviction to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, which affirmed, finding that (1) her statements to officers and her prior acts of child neglect were admissible evidence (2) the trial court did not err in failing to conduct sua sponte a second competency hearing during trial, and (3) the jury's verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. Id. at 828-32, 687 N.Y.S.2d 442. The New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal on August 12, 1999. 93 N.Y.2d 1014, 697 N.Y.S.2d 573, 719 N.E.2d 934 (1999).

Subsequently, on July 11, 2006, Bolarinwa moved in state court for an order vacating her conviction pursuant to N.Y.Crim. Proc. Law § 440. 10, arguing that the evidence adduced at her trial was insufficient to support her conviction and that a juror may have been sleeping during the proceedings. The court denied the motion and the Appellate Division denied leave to appeal on September 22, 2006. Bolarinwa's subsequent motion for a writ of coram nobis, alleging ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, was denied by the Appellate Division; on June 28, 2007, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division denied leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals.

On August 14, 2007 Bolarinwa filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; the petition was subsequently transferred to the Northern District of New York as the appropriate jurisdiction. Construed broadly, the petition and its 172-page attachment raise more than a dozen claims. Of relevance for the present appeal, in the section of the petition addressing timeliness Bolarinwa contends that the AEDPA one-year limitations period should not "bar this petition because [she] pursued post-conviction remedy and collateral attack," but she does not specify the dates of her state-court filings. In response to a request from the district court, Bolarinwa filed a subsequent affidavit stating the dates upon which her state petitions were denied, but not when they were filed. Nowhere in the habeas petition does Bolarinwa argue that the statute of limitations should be equitably tolled on account of her mental illness.

On January 4, 2008 the district court dismissed Bolarinwa's petition and entered judgment, finding that her state petitions could not have been filed earlier than 2005 and thus there was a five-year gap between expiration of the AEDPA one-year limitations period on or about November 12, 2000 and the commencement of her state collateral actions. On February 14, 2008, Bolarinwa submitted to the court a notice of appeal and a motion for an extension of time to file the notice; in her motion she explained that she had failed to file the notice within the prescribed thirty-day period because she had been waiting for a letter establishing her history of mental illness. The district court granted the motion for extension of time and directed the clerk to file the notice of appeal.

That same day Bolarinwa filed a motion requesting a certificate of appealability from the district court, arguing that she was entitled to equitable tolling of the limitations period because she "was mentally incapable of functioning to do diligence in regard to legal remedy in a timely fashion." In a supporting document she asserted that "her psychiatric problems made it impossible for her to timely file habeas corpus petition," that she was "depressed, anxious, and grieving," and that her "mental condition, aggravated by the tragic death of her three children, father and grandfather, burdened her efforts to file her habeas petition." She also alleged that medication and "placement in psychiatric units within the state prison system" left her incapacitated. She provided specific dates for several hospitalizations, but only one, from February 24 to March 14, 2000, occurred prior to the expiration of the one-year AEDPA filing period. She also stated that she was subsequently admitted to psychiatric units at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility "on occasion" or "at various times." In addition, Bolarinwa attached a letter from Eloise Warren ("the Warren letter"), a social worker at Bedford Hills, which stated that Bolarinwa had been treated for a variety of mental illnesses through psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. The Warren letter asserted generally that during her incarceration Bolarinwa had been "trying to become mentally stable" and that "the tragic death of her children . . . made it difficult for her to focus on filing a habeas petition." The letter did not provide specific dates regarding Bolarinwa's treatment or progress.

The district court denied Bolarinwa's motion for a certificate of appealability, stating simply that "[a]fter reviewing the file" it would deny the motion "for the reasons set forth in [its] prior Decision and Order" of January 4. The court added that, "[a]s discussed in the Court's prior Decision and Order, there is no evidence that the limitations period was tolled, and the Petition signed by Petitioner on August 9, 2007 . . . was clearly untimely." The court did not mention Bolarinwa's equitable tolling argument. Bolarinwa filed a motion for a certificate of appealability with this Court on March 25, 2008, which was granted on the following issue: "whether mental illness may qualify as an `extraordinary circumstance' sufficient to equitably toll the [AEDPA] one-year statute of limitation period."

II

As a preliminary matter, the State argues that the district court erred in granting Bolarinwa an extension of time to file her notice of appeal to this Court. We review for abuse of discretion the district court's grant of an extension of time for filing a notice of appeal. Goode v. Winkler, 252 F.3d 242, 245 (2d Cir.2001) (per curiam). In general, a litigant must file a notice of appeal within thirty days of entry of judgment. Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(1)(A). The district court may grant an extension of the filing deadline if one is requested within thirty days of the expiration of the filing period and so long as the movant "shows excusable neglect or good cause." Id. at 4(a)(5)(A); see Goode, 252 F.3d at 245. The district court dismissed Bolarinwa's habeas petition on January 4, 2008; she did not move for an extension of time to file until February 14, 2008. In her motion for an extension, Bolarinwa contended that she had "good cause" for the untimely filing because she was "waiting for supporting documentation," i.e., the Warren letter, which she asserted she did not receive until February 8, 2008. The Warren letter itself is dated February 8.

The State argues that, in granting the extension, the district court "did not make the necessary finding of `good...